Security News
The 2016 U.S. president election served as a wake-up call for American lawmakers and the public of the threat that cyberattackers can pose to the very foundation of a democratic society, says Christopher Krebs, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency. Krebs said the 2016 U.S. elections served as a "Sputnik" moment for America, referencing the launch of the Russian satellite in 1957, which alerted lawmakers and the American public to the threat posed by Moscow - namely, that it possessed a working intercontinental ballistic missile able to deliver offensive payloads across oceans.
The United States Supreme Court has kicked out Apple's attempt to overturn a judgement in one of the cases in its 10-year patent fight with VirnetX. The Supremes rejected Apple's petition for a judicial review in a bid to overrule the 2016 decision of a lower court, which awarded VirnetX $302m, which later rose to $439.8m in damages, fees and interest for Apple's use of its patents. Apple had argued earlier this month that the "Federal Circuit has created a gaping loophole that facilitates massive damages in patent cases where the damages claims are based on prior licenses" - in essence saying that VirnetX had overvalued the inventions to the court.
U.S. and U.K. officials are blaming the Russian military for launching an October 2019 cyberattack on the country of Georgia that crippled at least 2,000 government, news media and court websites over the course of one day. A few hours after the U.S. and U.K. released their statements about Georgia on Thursday, the New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials had recently warned U.S. lawmakers that Russia has already taken steps to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.
The US and UK governments have both accused Russia of launching a cyber attack against the Georgian government last year. The attacks, mounted on 28 October 2019, came from Russia's notorious GRU military intelligence unit, according to announcements from the US State Department and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre.
Georgian authorities on Thursday accused Russia's military intelligence of launching a large-scale cyberattack that targeted the government and private organizations with the goal of destabilizing the ex-Soviet nation. Georgia's Foreign Ministry said the Oct. 28 cyberattack was "Targeted at Georgia's national security and intended to harm Georgian citizens and government structures by disrupting and paralyzing the functionality of various organizations, causing anxiety among the general public."
"The National Cyber Security Centre assesses with the highest level of probability that on 28 October 2019 the GRU carried out large-scale, disruptive cyber-attacks," said the Foreign Office in a statement, referring to the main Russian overseas spy agency. Russia has few qualms about letting APT28 loose against foreign countries, as its attacks against Italy a few years ago showed.
Britain and the United States on Thursday accused Russia of orchestrating a "Reckless" cyber assault against Georgia last year as part of an aggressive campaign of online attacks worldwide. The British government said its National Cyber Security Centre had decided Moscow was behind the Georgia cyber attack "With the highest level of probability".
A ransomware attack on a U.S. natural gas compression facility led to a two-day shutdown of operations, according to an alert from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. From there, attackers planted what the agency called "Commodity ransomware" within both networks that encrypted data throughout the facility.
Washington has the right to block US federal agencies from buying products by Huawei on cybersecurity grounds, a judge has ruled, dismissing the Chinese telecom giant's legal challenge to a purchase ban. Huawei filed the suit nearly a year ago, claiming that Congress had failed to provide evidence to support a law that stopped government agencies from buying its equipment, services, or working with third parties that are Huawei customers.
An unnamed US gas pipeline operator has falled victim to ransomware, which managed to encrypt data both on its IT and operational technology networks and led to a shutdown of the affected natural gas compression facility, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has revealed. "Although the direct operational impact of the cyberattack was limited to one control facility, geographically distinct compression facilities also had to halt operations because of pipeline transmission dependencies. This resulted in an operational shutdown of the entire pipeline asset lasting approximately two days."